We loved exploring the city, but we are thrilled to be heading back to the coast.
When researching the popular things to do in Mexico and asking friends and family who had travelled here, the one recurring place mentioned was the Yucatán Peninsula. We’d heard of the cenotes, the gorgeous beaches, the turquoise water, and the sea life you encounter. With that in mind, it was an obvious choice to spend the rest of our trip in this beautiful part of Mexico.
DAY ONE
Cancun airport does not like Uber.
Our flight to Cancun wasn’t departing until the early afternoon, so we spent one last morning out in Mexico City. We treated ourselves to one-too-many pastries from Pasteleria Ideal and discovered an amazing coffee shop called Café Quintales. We jumped in an uber bound for the airport, got stuck in traffic due to closures at the Zócalo and then again due to a crash on the highway. Finally, we made it to the airport, checked in our bags and set off to find our gate. We got seats with extra legroom (what a luxury) on our first time flying Aeromexico.
Just past 4 pm we landed in Cancun. We got our bags, walked out of the airport and went to order an Uber. This is when we discovered that Uber is not a thing in Cancun. Well, it is, but it’s complicated. At this point, we now knew that Uber was not allowed to do pickups at the airport. With the taxi quotes being (in our opinion) way too high, we opted to go back inside to the ADO desk and buy bus tickets to Downtown Cancun. We were booked onto a bus departing in 50 minutes, so we went out to the station and waited.
When we finally got to our Airbnb, we were dishevelled and hungry, having not eaten since our pastries that morning. We dropped off our bags and went straight out for dinner at a burger shop called A la Burger.
DAY TWO
Future plans are coming together.
With less than a month until we arrive in country #6, it was time we spent a day at our computers planning and booking our itinerary. On top of this, Clark had some work to submit and an assignment for his MBA due soon. We also wanted to head to the supermarket and stock up on food, but first, we wanted to get out and explore the streets of Cancun. We walked the area around our Airbnb and eventually found ourselves grabbing coffee and refreshing fruit juice at Café Por Favor.
After exploring the parks, shops and local area, we headed to the supermarket to purchase food and drinks for the week. We came back to our Airbnb where we spent the next few hours planning and working. Just before sunset, we ventured up to the communal rooftop to enjoy the view and a couple of drinks. We then cooked dinner, finished up our work and planned out our next few days in Cancun.
DAY THREE
A beach day.
It has been a while since we have spent a whole day just relaxing on the beach. Needless to say, we were very excited by the idea of doing this, especially since we have been in colder locations for the last month. We have been doing a good job of coming in under budget each day in Mexico thus far, so we decided to continue attempting to do this by walking to the beach instead of getting transport. We decided to go to Playa Del Nino, which is a beach approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes walk away from our Airbnb. Walking in the 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit) heat, we were so ready to lay down under the shade of a palm tree by the time we set foot on the sand.
We lay in the shade, dipped in the water and relaxed in the ocean breeze for a couple of hours. We then walked a few metres to La Palapa Beach, a bar right on the waterfront, where we enjoyed snacks and margaritas – a perfect way to end a relaxing beach day.
DAY FOUR
No more souvenirs for us.
Most of the things we had on our list for Cancun included being out on the coastline. However, one thing we had tagged in Downtown, where we were staying, was Mercado 28. We loved exploring the marketplaces in Mexico City and still had a few items we were interested in bringing home with us. So, after coffee and breakfast at home, we walked from our Airbnb to Mercado 28. However, we didn’t stay very long. While there were a lot of stalls to explore, we also had every stall owner following us, blocking our path and attempting to coax us into purchases. While this is not an unusual occurrence in markets like this, we had quite enjoyed browsing without this pressure in Mexico City, and were not keen enough on the souvenirs to stay very long.
From the market, we walked through the very busy Parque de las Palapas and back along the main street. We stopped for lunch at a vegan restaurant called Herbivore, where Bec enjoyed the avocado alfredo and Clark tried one of every taco on the menu. We spent the rest of our day between the rooftop garden and booking future travels on our computer (including our flights to Europe for later in 2023).
DAY FIVE
Speedboats and coral reefs.
The one thing we knew we couldn’t miss in Cancun was the snorkelling. We looked at many tours with varying lengths, inclusions and prices. We ended up booking a tour that fit within our price range and included speedboats. The tour departed from the dock at 8:30 am, which we barely made after sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic to get there. We were one of only two couples in that time slot, which made it feel like a somewhat private tour.
They gave us a very quick demonstration and then led us to zip around the lagoon in our little two-person speedboat. When we reached the snorkel site, we put on our gear and jumped into the warm ocean water. We swam amongst the fish and the stingrays, explored the coral reef and admired the underwater statues. We sped back to the dock, hung up our flippers and life vests and decided to walk further into the Hotel Zone to relax by the beach.
We ended up at Playa Chacmool, where we spent just over an hour lying in the sun and swimming in the turquoise water. We attempted to get a taxi back to Downtown, but they were all trying to charge us over double what we paid to get into the zone in the morning, so we decided we would walk. After two and a half hours of walking along a main road, getting drenched in a passing storm and completing 26,000 steps for the day, we made it home. To end our day, we had dinner at Los Tarascos, which was one of the best meals we had in Cancun (or maybe we were just extremely hungry from our walk).
DAY SIX
A change to our plans.
Our day started very well. We found a very cute spot for breakfast at Onesto Cafe, where we relaxed in the courtyard, sipped on our coffee and began planning out the coming months of travel. We returned to the Airbnb and sat down to do some work and double-check our plans to rent a car the next day, which is when everything changed.
When diving deeper into car rentals in Mexico and reading an outrageous number of 1-star reviews on almost every rental company at Cancun airport, we discovered the condition of mandatory insurance. We had assumed, from past experience in many countries, that we could opt to use our own insurance rather than the rental companies. Turns out that is not the case in Mexico – a fact we wish we had known sooner. After calculating what this added cost would be, we had to sadly accept that renting a car was now out of our budget.
We spent the rest of the afternoon booking alternative transport and researching tours to get around to all the places we were hoping to see over the next week. We cooked the last of the fresh food we had for dinner, enjoyed one last drink on the rooftop and packed our bags, ready to set off with a new plan for our next location.
WHERE WE STAYED
We really liked the apartment we stayed at in Cancun. It was exactly as described online, the host was great, and the people we met at check-in and throughout the week were all welcoming. The place felt safe and had good amenities to help us feel comfortable for a week-long stay. We liked the location as it was close to good restaurants and cafes, was within walking distance of a supermarket and was quiet at night. The only downside to consider is the proximity to most tourist attractions. You will need to arrange transport, such as hiring a car, catching a taxi or the public bus. We walked to a couple of beaches, so it is doable, but even as people who don’t mind a long walk, some distances were just a bit too far in the heat of the day.
OUR NEXT STOP
For our third and final location in country #5, we are heading a bit further south along the coast to Tulum.
OUR GOOGLE MAPS
When planning our travel destinations, we pin our bucket list of sites to see and recommended places to eat and drink on Google Maps. We are then never lost for ideas when travelling, and can easily share these lists for our friends and family to use as well.
Click here to see our Google Maps for Our 6 Days in Cancun.
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